02-27-2025, 09:27 AM
Here is his writeup on Fears and a note on Carter Bryant from Vecenie. I think Bryant fills the eye test in my brief half of watching him. Still a long ways away, but he just looks like an eventual starting wing in the NBA.
Jeremiah Fears | 6-4 freshman guard | Oklahoma | 18 years old | No. 17
It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster season for Fears. A late reclassification from the recruiting class of 2025, Fears is still 18 years old and was a monster to begin the season. In his first 13 games, he averaged 18.1 points and 4.5 assists while shooting 50 percent from the field, 31 percent from 3 and 86 percent from the line to lead Oklahoma to a stunning unbeaten record and a top-15 ranking in the country. Then in his next 12 games, Oklahoma went 3-9 as SEC play heated up, and Fears’ game dropped off a cliff. He averaged 12 points and three assists while shooting just 36 percent from the field and 20 percent from 3.
The good news? His recent games have been better, as he posted a 22-point outing against a top-10 defense in Florida (although he had 14 points on 5-of-11 from the field in the first half before the game got completely out of hand) and then a 27-point, 10-assist showcase against Mississippi State. The latter was one of the best prospect games of the season. Fears showcased serious creativity off the bounce to get to pull-up jumpers from both 3 and from midrange. He dished out terrific passes, mostly down to his rollers around the rim. He lived at the foul line, taking 14 attempts.
Fears looked like a contender to be a top-five pick in the nonconference season, looked like he wouldn’t be a player in this draft in his next 12 games, then turned it around again. Unsurprisingly, that — along with his defense and shooting in general — has made him fairly polarizing for NBA teams. Some think he’s still a lottery-level player. Others are not quite as enthused about taking a project point guard who will essentially be position-locked into one role. You’d have to really buy into high-end, starter-level upside to take this bet because of how difficult the learning curve is for young guards. In the last decade, the only small guard — NBA personnel who have seen him in person do not expect Fears to measure at his listed 6-4 at the combine — to have rookie success in the NBA is Trae Young. Assuming he’s in this draft, there’s a long way to go here given that Fears’ defense is a serious question, he struggles as a shooter and he hasn’t made a ton of shots at the rim this season.
I think the context surrounding Fears’ play is important, though. First, reclassified point guards are basically never good. You can look through the past of Deryck Thornton, Khristian Lander, Meechie Johnson, Kira Lewis, Devin Askew, Josh Primo, A.J. Lawson and Ashton Hagans to find a seriously mixed track record but essentially zero first-year success. Second, Oklahoma is entirely reliant upon him to do anything. The Sooners have very little secondary creation. The team does have pretty real floor-spacing around him but doesn’t have a particularly good rim-runner.
Where does all of that leave Fears? At the very least, NBA teams agree that if he enters the draft, he will be a first-round pick. Someone will take the plunge and try to develop him. A name that has come up often from teams is Monta Ellis, another extremely fast, young guard with a quick handle whom teams saw as a project entering the NBA. Ellis made over $100 million entering the league back in the mid-2000s, so they don’t mean that as a slight at Fears’ game. Ellis had a nine-year peak in which he averaged over 20 points and five assists while starting nearly 600 games. Fears’ development might be helped by returning to college basketball next year given the finances involved in the sport on that level now, but as long as he doesn’t tank the rest of the season, he should be well-positioned to be a top-20 pick with serious upside beyond that into the middle portion of the lottery if he performs well to close the year and in pre-draft workouts.
Other prospects
• One hot name among scouts right now is Arizona wing Carter Bryant, who has continued to take strides. His counting numbers of 6.3 points and 3.8 rebounds don’t jump off of the page, but he’s a 6-8 wing who has hit 36 percent of his 3s and been quite impactful on defense. When Bryant is on the court, Arizona beats its opponents by over 15 points per 100 possessions, per CBB Analytics. That’s second-best on the team behind Henri Veesaar, and it’s drastically ahead of third place. He’ll need to go into workouts and impress to be a one-and-done, but there is real buzz for Bryant as teams start looking at their boards and pinpointing potentially undervalued players.
Jeremiah Fears | 6-4 freshman guard | Oklahoma | 18 years old | No. 17
It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster season for Fears. A late reclassification from the recruiting class of 2025, Fears is still 18 years old and was a monster to begin the season. In his first 13 games, he averaged 18.1 points and 4.5 assists while shooting 50 percent from the field, 31 percent from 3 and 86 percent from the line to lead Oklahoma to a stunning unbeaten record and a top-15 ranking in the country. Then in his next 12 games, Oklahoma went 3-9 as SEC play heated up, and Fears’ game dropped off a cliff. He averaged 12 points and three assists while shooting just 36 percent from the field and 20 percent from 3.
The good news? His recent games have been better, as he posted a 22-point outing against a top-10 defense in Florida (although he had 14 points on 5-of-11 from the field in the first half before the game got completely out of hand) and then a 27-point, 10-assist showcase against Mississippi State. The latter was one of the best prospect games of the season. Fears showcased serious creativity off the bounce to get to pull-up jumpers from both 3 and from midrange. He dished out terrific passes, mostly down to his rollers around the rim. He lived at the foul line, taking 14 attempts.
Fears looked like a contender to be a top-five pick in the nonconference season, looked like he wouldn’t be a player in this draft in his next 12 games, then turned it around again. Unsurprisingly, that — along with his defense and shooting in general — has made him fairly polarizing for NBA teams. Some think he’s still a lottery-level player. Others are not quite as enthused about taking a project point guard who will essentially be position-locked into one role. You’d have to really buy into high-end, starter-level upside to take this bet because of how difficult the learning curve is for young guards. In the last decade, the only small guard — NBA personnel who have seen him in person do not expect Fears to measure at his listed 6-4 at the combine — to have rookie success in the NBA is Trae Young. Assuming he’s in this draft, there’s a long way to go here given that Fears’ defense is a serious question, he struggles as a shooter and he hasn’t made a ton of shots at the rim this season.
I think the context surrounding Fears’ play is important, though. First, reclassified point guards are basically never good. You can look through the past of Deryck Thornton, Khristian Lander, Meechie Johnson, Kira Lewis, Devin Askew, Josh Primo, A.J. Lawson and Ashton Hagans to find a seriously mixed track record but essentially zero first-year success. Second, Oklahoma is entirely reliant upon him to do anything. The Sooners have very little secondary creation. The team does have pretty real floor-spacing around him but doesn’t have a particularly good rim-runner.
Where does all of that leave Fears? At the very least, NBA teams agree that if he enters the draft, he will be a first-round pick. Someone will take the plunge and try to develop him. A name that has come up often from teams is Monta Ellis, another extremely fast, young guard with a quick handle whom teams saw as a project entering the NBA. Ellis made over $100 million entering the league back in the mid-2000s, so they don’t mean that as a slight at Fears’ game. Ellis had a nine-year peak in which he averaged over 20 points and five assists while starting nearly 600 games. Fears’ development might be helped by returning to college basketball next year given the finances involved in the sport on that level now, but as long as he doesn’t tank the rest of the season, he should be well-positioned to be a top-20 pick with serious upside beyond that into the middle portion of the lottery if he performs well to close the year and in pre-draft workouts.
Other prospects
• One hot name among scouts right now is Arizona wing Carter Bryant, who has continued to take strides. His counting numbers of 6.3 points and 3.8 rebounds don’t jump off of the page, but he’s a 6-8 wing who has hit 36 percent of his 3s and been quite impactful on defense. When Bryant is on the court, Arizona beats its opponents by over 15 points per 100 possessions, per CBB Analytics. That’s second-best on the team behind Henri Veesaar, and it’s drastically ahead of third place. He’ll need to go into workouts and impress to be a one-and-done, but there is real buzz for Bryant as teams start looking at their boards and pinpointing potentially undervalued players.
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